Marlins Designate Oswaldo Arcia For Assignment

The Marlins announced that they have designated outfielder Oswaldo Arcia for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for the newly acquired Jeff Francoeur. Arcia had only recently been claimed off waivers from the Rays, but his time with the Marlins will amount to just two games/two plate appearances.

The 25-year-old former top prospect has now been designated for assignment three times this season — once by the Twins and once by the Rays prior to today’s move. Arcia showed promise coming up through the Twins system and in 2013-14 when he batted .241/.302/.441 with 34 homers across 200 games in his first two big league seasons after debuting as a 21-year-old. However, Arcia’s defensive shortcomings in the corner outfield are tough to overlook, and he’s posted lofty strikeout totals while hitting poorly against left-handed pitching in the Majors. Over the past two seasons, his power has taken a dip, and an extended run at the Triple-A level in 2015 yielded just a .199/.257/.372 slash.

Nonetheless, Arcia is still young and has shown some legitimate pop against right-handed pitching in his career, so he makes some sense as a bench bat for a contending club looking for some left-handed punch. In 715 career plate appearances against right-handed opponents, Arcia has slashed .244/.316/.467 with 36 home runs. He’s out of minor league options, so any club that claims him will have to carry him on its big league roster. However, with rosters set to expand a week from today, that’s not as tall an order as it would be earlier in the season.

The Padres should take a look, with rosters expanding in 5 days why not? It’s worth the shot to give him a handful of starts and at-bats the last month of the season to see what he’s got. If he shows well then let him come back in spring training to fight for a spot next year.

Not to mention Preller loves the Latin ball players. I mean with what he did in the International draft coupled with the signings/trades of Bethancourt, Perdomo, Rodney, Dominguez, Sardinas, Margot, Ramirez, Hector Sanchez, Espinsoza, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if he rolled the dice on Arcia.